


If Forever Ever Ends (For You)

by hollyandvice (hiasobi_writes)



Series: The Ballad of a Dove [9]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2016-10-23
Packaged: 2018-08-24 03:12:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8354644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hiasobi_writes/pseuds/hollyandvice
Summary: Keith can hardly find it in himself to be anything other than grateful. He has Lance back, and he's finally, if gradually, letting Keith back in, showing Keith the rough edges the Galra have left. He's letting Keith prove how little he cares about what the Galra did and how much he cares about Lance, and that's all Keith's wanted for far too long.
Keith and Lance start to learn each other again.





	

**Author's Note:**

> A huge thank you to [Tina](http://idoltina.tumblr.com/) for the beta despite this not being her fandom. You are an angel and I love you so much!
> 
> [Reblog from here!](http://hollyandvice.tumblr.com/post/152185757383/fic-if-forever-ever-ends-for-you) Fic title from [Better Dig Two by The Band Perry](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIdCo_QAz_E), series title from [If I Die Young by The Band Perry](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NJqUN9TClM).

Lance quickly becomes an almost constant fixture in Keith's room in the evenings. Although he's finally talking again, it's nowhere near as often as he did Before. Even so, Keith can hardly find it in himself to be anything other than grateful. He has Lance back, and he's finally, if gradually, letting Keith back in, showing Keith the rough edges the Galra have left. He's letting Keith prove how little he cares about what the Galra did and how much he cares about Lance, and that's all Keith's wanted for far too long.

\----

_"Once, they cut all the skin off the bottoms of my feet and then walked me across the room half a dozen times before they would put me in a healing pod."_

\----

They're alone in the kitchen eating breakfast about three days after Lance had finally snapped when Lance brings up the rings again. He doesn't say anything, he just turns to Keith where he's dutifully eating the green goop Coran made for them and hooks his index finger through the chain around Keith's neck. Keith turns to meet Lance's eyes, one eyebrow quirked in question. Lance offers a tired smile, before tugging on the chain so the rings come out from underneath his shirt.

"So, tell me again what this was about?"

Keith reaches out, wrapping his hand around Lance's on the chain. "I asked Hunk about them when I found them. He said you wouldn't let him come with you to buy them, but that you showed them to him afterward."

Lance smiles, as though recalling the moment. "Yeah. It was… it was too personal to really want to let him come along, you know? I think I wanted it to be something just for the two of us."

"You think?" Keith asks.

Lance shrugs. "It was pretty close to right before… well, Before, and to be honest I've blocked out a lot of that stuff. Made it easier when I was with the Galra. Remembering things like that was really just…" Lance shakes his head. "But then when I brought them back, I remember being so excited that I had to tell _someone_ , and I wasn't ready for it to be you."

"So you told Hunk."

"Yeah," Lance says, voice soft and hopeful. "I told Hunk."

Keith swallows, looking down at their hands. "I don't know a lot about rings, and I knew nothing when I first found them, so when I went to try one on… when I went to try one on, I think I ended up grabbing yours instead. It was so big on me that I knew it couldn't be mine, and then all I could think about was you trying them on for the first time. How much bigger your hands are." Keith swallows, slipping Lance's hand off the chain and lacing their fingers together. "I've never tried mine on."

Lance's eyes go wide. "Never?"

Keith shakes his head.

Lance swallows, letting go of the chain and glancing down at the rings where they fall to hang in the middle of Keith's chest. "Huh." Then he turns back to his breakfast, effectively dropping the subject.

\----

When Keith finally tracks Lance to the training room, he almost doesn't want to go in. He doesn't hear the telltale blast of active training with the droids, which is comforting, at least until he makes out the sound of voices. Nervousness tightens his throat, but he holds back from opening the door. There's nothing in the bond to signify that Lance is in danger, and Keith's been trying to be better about giving Lance his space.

That doesn't mean he doesn't want to know what's going on.

The door slides open as he's standing there, debating whether or not to go in. Shiro steps out, a warm smile on his face, and Lance follows a moment later, laughter on his lips. Keith blinks, not a little disoriented by the easy camaraderie between the two of them. He forces the immediate jealousy down, and plasters on a small smile. Shiro catches sight of him first, smiling back, but Lance stops dead in his tracks when he sees Keith.

Keith flinches. "Sorry. I know I said I'd try not to--"

"Stalk me?" Lance replies with a wry grin.

Keith deflates, comforted by the gentle resignation in Lance's voice. "Sorry," he says again, a little smile on his lips.

Lance just rolls his eyes, stepping forward and pressing a kiss to Keith's temple. "Come on," Lance says, slinging an arm over Keith's shoulders and turning him toward the elevator, "let's go get something to eat. I'm ravenous."

Keith swallows, glancing over his shoulder at Shiro. There's something distant in the leader's eyes, and it leaves Keith tense and a little uncertain. He does his best to shake it off, but it lingers through the rest of the day.

_There's nothing you can do about it, Keith. You just have to trust them. Both of them._

\----

_"The weirdest was the time they got really interested in my nose. They broke it four or five times in a row, like they were trying to see how many different ways it could break. Pidge thinks it might have been because it's cartilage instead of bone, and that's why they were so interested in it."_

\----

Something tugs Keith out of the depths of sleep, and he finds himself following the lure easily. He blinks tired eyes open in the darkness of the room he shares with Lance and feels strong fingers sliding through his hair. He blinks a few more times, eyes hardly needing to strain in the near-darkness anymore, lit as it is by the clock on the bedside table. He draws in a slow, deep breath, and the fingers in his hair still. Keith makes a wordless, disgruntled sound, and he hears Lance laugh softly above him.

"Sorry," he whispers, "did I wake you?"

Keith just grumbles, pushing his head against Lance's fingers insistently.

Lance laughs again, before shushing Keith idly. "Go back to sleep, baby."

Keith mumbles indistinctly back, an idle "Love you," making it past his lips as he settles a little more closely against Lance.

He's asleep before Lance's fingers still in his hair at the words.

\----

The second time it happens, it isn't even on purpose. He'd been heading into the kitchens to grab a snack before training, when he'd found Lance and Allura talking in quiet voices at the counter. Keith almost manages to beat a hasty retreat, but Lance seems to sense him there, turning his head sharply and meeting his gaze. Keith bites his lip, trying not to look away, and Lance smiles indulgently at that. He nods once at Keith before leaning across the counter to press a kiss to Allura's cheek. Then Lance is on his feet, heading toward the door, where he claps a hand on Keith's shoulder before stepping past him, with a gentle "See you at training."

Keith nods back, even knowing that Lance has long since slipped past him and isn't looking at him any longer. He glances at Allura, whose face has that same distant look Shiro's had had when Keith caught Lance talking to him. But Allura shakes her head, smiling gently at Keith.

"Everything alright, Princess?" he asks, more out of habit than anything else.

"Yes, Keith. Thank you." Then she's on her feet, slipping out of the room past him, fingers ghosting over his shoulder. It leaves that same unsettled feeling in Keith's stomach, distracting him all through training, to the point where Pidge actually smacks him over the head halfway through the sim.

"Pull yourself together, Keith!" Pidge shouts, and Keith does his best to shake off his nerves.

It doesn't work, and, as has become the norm of late, he's the first one to fall victim to the droids' lasers.

\----

_"That scar must be from the time they sliced my forearm open. I don't remember a lot about those tests, I blacked out pretty soon after they put the knife in. Too much blood for me to stomach, to tell you the truth."_

\----

It's a quiet morning after a long battle against the Galra when Lance finally brings the rings up again. His fingers are tangled in the chain around Keith's neck while they lie in bed together, and Keith's had a feeling something like this was coming. Lance is holding one of the rings between his thumb and forefinger, staring at it as though trying to melt it with his gaze. Then he looks up at Keith, holding the ring up, letting the other slip down into the slack of the chain.

"I want you to try it on."

Keith blinks, glancing between the ring and Lance's steady gaze. "Yeah?"

Lance nods, and Keith sits up, reaching for the clasp at the back of his neck. He undoes the clasp and slides the chain through the ring Lance is holding, letting the other fall to his lap as he does. Keith swallows thickly, taking the ring from Lance's steady grasp into his own shaking fingers and staring at it for a long moment. Then, still shaking, he slips the ring over his finger, tension and nerves in every inch of his body.

It fits perfectly.

Keith feels something flutter in his chest, and reaches instantly for the second ring in his lap. He takes it in his hand, turning it over in his palm and staring at it. Then he looks up at Lance, holding it out in question.

Lance smiles back, a little tired, but present, and he takes the ring form Keith's palm, looking down at it thoughtfully. Just as Keith had done, he turns the ring over in his palm. Then he takes a slow, deep breath before sliding it over his finger.

That same feeling flutters in Keith's chest, stronger than before, and Lance glances up at him, a nervous smile on his lips. Keith doesn't even try to stop himself from leaning in and pressing a kiss to Lance's forehead.

"Love you," he whispers against Lance's skin.

This time, when Lance doesn't answer, Keith's awake to hear the silence, and the realization sits heavy in his chest.

\----

There had been nothing untoward going on, that much is obvious from the way Hunk immediately gets to his feet when Keith rounds the corner. Keith waves him off, accepting the unspoken assurance without a second thought. Lance turns to look at him, and the connection is immediate. Hunk hadn't been going in for a kiss. He'd been reaching for the burn scars on Lance's face.

Keith swallows, something uncertain in his stomach at the fact that he's already become so accustomed to the scarring that he doesn't even notice anymore. Doesn't think to ask how Lance, so enamored of his complexion for so long, must have felt when he realized his face would never be the same again.

Healing pods can only do so much on scarring that old.

Keith's whole body tenses, and Lance's eyes flick away at what Keith knows much be thick, choking guilt echoing down their bond. Keith turns on his heel and marches out the door, not daring to look back. Lance will come to him in his own time. For all that it's in Keith's nature to force his way in sometimes, he knows that, this time, that will do more harm than good. So this time he'll wait.

For Lance, he'll wait.

\----

_"I mean, they used to stick these needles in my spine? I don't know what they were for. Hurt like hell, though."_

\----

Hand to hand with Lance is an exercise in patience these days. Sometimes Lance fights with all the strength and vigor he had before he turned himself over to the Galra, tinged with a new sort of desperation that leaves Keith straining to keep up. Those days, Keith knows that, with time, Lance will heal. Those days, it's easy to believe, to know that the man he fell in love with is still in there.

Other days, all it takes is a kick to his ankles, an arm twisted behind him, a touch to the back of his neck, and Lance is down for the count, his face twisting in a mask of anger and the bond coiling in a well of self-hate through which Keith can only just find his breath. Those days, Keith wants nothing more than to hold Lance through the deep, wracking pain and help him let it go. Keith knows his love isn't enough to banish the wounds of Lance's time with the Galra, but those days more than other he wishes it was. Instead, he has to feel Lance throw off his arms and the bond, get to his feet, and stagger out the door of the training deck without him.

Those days, Lance wants his love less than ever.

\----

Keith's halfway into Pidge's lab when he hears not one but two voices echoing off the walls of the spacious room. He slows to a stop just inside the doorway, listening as best he can. He thinks, with his luck these past days, that he already knows who's in the room with Pidge, but he wants to be sure before he bails. He really did want to talk to Pidge, but--

But no, that's Lance's voice. Even in the wide room and from such a distance, Keith knows the cadence of his partner's words. He closes his eyes, reveling in the comfort of knowing Lance is near, before beating a hasty retreat.

He swore that he would give Lance his space. Leaving him to his conversations with their friends instead of intruding is the least he can to. Hopefully Lance will be willing to talk to him again sooner rather than later, but perhaps… perhaps now is not the time.

The time will come. Keith just has to be patient.

\----

_"Some scars just aren't meant to heal, you know?"_

\----

When Keith wakes up, he can see Lance watching him in the dim light of the clock on the bedside table. The one he knows Lance still hasn't bothered to learn to read. Lance has got his head propped up in his hand and his eyes are warm and soft, welcoming in a way that Keith so rarely sees these days.

Lance's face shifts when he catches Keith's eyes on him. "Did I wake you?" he whispers.

"How long've you been up?" Keith asks instead of answering, voice rough with sleep. Lance shrugs and reaches his free hand out to comb idly through Keith's hair. Keith closes his eyes, almost lulled into the false sense of security, but he drags himself out of it. "Lance."

Lance sighs, removing his fingers from Keith's hair. Keith tries not to ache from the loss. "Dunno. Few hours, I guess."

"Lance. Did you sleep at all?" Lance stays quiet, and it's that more than anything else that alarms Keith. "Lance."

"I don't sleep much, to be honest," Lance says quietly. "Not anymore."

Keith swallows. "Why not?"

Lance rolls over onto his back, sighing as he rubs a weary hand over his face. "Do we really have to have this conversation right now?"

Keith pushes himself up onto one elbow, letting his gaze rake over Lance's form. The fatigue is obvious in every line of his body, and even after six months, it's clear that he hasn't recovered from the two years of malnutrition and torture he'd been subjected to. Keith reaches out, letting his hand rest on the top of Lance's head. "No," he says quietly, "we don't have to have it right now. But I want to have it at some point."

Lance sighs again, reaching up to lace his fingers through Keith's. He brings their joined hands down to rest on his sternum and closes his eyes. For a moment, Keith thinks Lance is going to let the moment pass and it'll be up to Keith to keep a closer eye on him. But then he starts to speak. "When I close my eyes…." He stops, shaking his head. "It's not even like I see them or anything like that. It's not that I see them or hear them or smell them, I just…. I just remember them. Sometimes I feel them too, but mostly I just… remember. It happens when I'm awake too, but it's worst when I'm trying to sleep. The memories just kind of come back all at once, and it feels like they're trying to drown me."

Keith runs his thumb over the back of Lance's hand, a silent reminder that he's still there. Lance's mouth kicks up in a tiny smile.

"But when I'm watching you sleep…" Lance shrugs. "It's like all that goes away for a while. Keith's throat goes tight, and he lets his hand match the motion, his fingers tightening around Lance's. Lance looks up at him, a tiny wrinkle in his nose. "I guess that's kinda creepy, isn't it?"

Keith doesn't even bother searching for the words to answer Lance. He just leans in, pressing a kiss to his lips. "No," he whispers against Lance's lips, drawing back just slightly. "It's not creepy."

Lance's smile goes a little sad. "You're just humoring me," he mutters, shoving at Keith's shoulder.

Keith goes with the motion, rolling over, but he tugs Lance with him, settling Lance's body atop his. Lance pulls back, aggressively planting his elbows on either side of Keith's sternum, making Keith laugh as he tries to get comfortable in spite of Lance's bony elbows in his chest. Once Lance is settled, though, Keith gets serious again, eyes warm and firm on Lance's. "I'm serious," he says softly. "Whatever you need. You went through hell to stay safe and sane enough to come back to us. Whatever you need, I don't care." He reaches up, brushing aside the bangs that Lance still refuses to cut. "I just want you here, by my side, for as long as you're willing to be."

Lance's eyes go soft, and he leans in, not for a kiss, but to rest his ear over Keith's heart. "I never told you, did I?"

Keith reaches up, carding his fingers through Lance's hair. "Never told me what?"

"Never told you what they did that finally broke me."

It takes every ounce of training for Keith to keep his body relaxed at Lance's statement, but he doesn't manage to keep his hand from stilling in surprise. Lance hums, and Keith can feel it against his sternum. He goes back to running his fingers through Lance's hair but otherwise stays absolutely still, not wanting to scare Lance out of sharing whatever it is that has finally let him open up, even just a little.

"I told Shiro. I figured he'd understand, you know, since they hurt him too. He didn't really get it, I could tell, but he listened, and at the time that was all I needed. But now, I guess… I guess I need something more."

Keith is hardly breathing, desperation and fear and nerves leaving him a breath away from trembling. "Yeah?" he asks softly. "And what do you need now?"

Lance sighs. "I need you to know."

Keith closes his eyes. He's not sure he wants to know, or if he's ready to know, but the last thing he wants is to is scare Lance out of telling him more about what happened. So he steels himself and nods ever so slightly. "You can tell me. If you're ready."

Lance hums again, turning his head to press his face against Keith's chest. "It's…. It's not pretty."

"That's okay. Whatever you need."

Lance draws in a shaky breath. "After I'd been there awhile, time stopped really meaning anything. Reality stopped meaning anything. I couldn't tell what was real or how much time had passed. Nothing really made sense anymore. But I knew you guys were coming for me. It was all that seemed to matter.

"One day the Druid that was torturing me, it came in with some of the guards, and… and one of them brought a body with him." Lance breathes out a slow breath, then sits up on his hands to meet Keith's eyes. "It was yours."

Keith blinks, his whole body going cold. "What?"

Lance's smile is sad and tired. "It was your body. They showed me a world where you were dead. Brought you in still wearing your uniform. You were just…." Lance shrugs, "gone."

Keith swallows. "I…." Words aren't coming.

Lance reaches out, fingers ghosting through Keith's hair. "It was almost the last straw."

That stops Keith short. "Almost?"

"Yeah. Almost."

Keith almost doesn't want to hear what came next. "What was the last straw?"

"You came back."

"Came back?"

"The Druid, it showed you to me again. Alive again. And you told me it was okay to let go."

Keith sits up quickly. "I _what_?" Lance looks away from the sharp tone, and Keith reaches out, fingers soft but present on his face. "What did it make me say?"

"That it was okay if I wanted to stop fighting the Druids. That you would forgive me for it. That… that you weren't coming for me."

"Lance--"

"You said all these things, and I just… I believed you. I believed you and I… I let go."

"Lance, you know I'd never--"

"I was so sure you were dead, Keith, and I just…" Lance is shaking, and Keith wants so desperately to reach out for him, but he's worried it might break him. Might break them both. "I just gave up."

"Lance--"

"I'm sorry," Lance says, and Keith freezes. "I'm so sorry, Keith, I never… I never should have given up like that. You wouldn't have, you would have been strong enough to hold out, and I shouldn't have--"

Keith reaches out and wraps Lance up in his arms, holding him as though he wants to fuse them together, as though they could become one again the same way they had when the bond had first been formed. Lance freezes, then chokes on a sob and reaches up to cling to Keith's shoulders.

"I'm sorry," Lance sobs, pressing his face into Keith's shoulder so the words are muffled, and Keith lets his grip go impossible tighter. "I'm so sorry, Keith I didn't-- I shouldn't-- Keith, I'm--"

Keith doesn't bother trying to shush him, choosing instead to just hold him tight and rock gently from side to side. Lance goes on shaking and crying in his arms, and Keith just holds on, as though he can take the pain away.

Keith's not sure how long they sit like that, pressed together and shaking, before Lance finally pulls back. He rubs at his eyes, and laughs a little. "Sorry about that. I didn't mean to freak out on you."

"Yeah, I…" It isn't until the words slip from his mouth that Keith realizes that he's the one shaking now. He swallows, trying to stop. "I…" The shaking just gets worse, and Keith laughs bitterly as he wraps his arms around himself, fighting to get his body back under control. "Sorry, Lance, I…"

Lance reaches out, settling one hand on Keith's knee. "Keith?"

Keith presses a hand over his mouth, fighting down the need to start sobbing. Lance doesn't move to embrace him, seeming to sense that Keith doesn't want that. After two false starts, Keith finally finds the words he was looking for. "I don't want you to feel like I think any less of you for what you went through."

Keith can hear the frown in Lance's voice. "I don't."

"But you said… you said I wouldn't have broken. That I would have been stronger than you. Lance," he says, finally looking up to meet Lance's eyes, "I don't know _what_ I would have done."

Lance rolls his eyes. "Come on, Keith, you know the answer to that. You've always been stronger than me."

"Physically, maybe," Keith offers, "but I don't know if I would have been able to hold out the way you did. When we found you…." Keith shakes his head, looking away from Lance again. "Lance, I thought I was never going to get you back."

"Keith--"

"You _ran away from me_ , Lance. Two years we'd been searching, and the first thing you did was run away. I thought… I didn't know what to think. I was just so scared that I'd never have you in my arms like this again."

Lance is quiet, and Keith looks up at him instinctively. There's a tired sort of guilt in Lance's eyes, and Keith knows he's said the wrong thing.

"I know now why you did it," he says quickly, "and I don't blame you. But I…. At the time I didn't know how badly they'd hurt you. I didn't know what they'd put you through. Some part of me just thought I'd show up and things would be the way they were. It was naïve and foolish and I know that now, but at the time…" Keith swallows and shakes his head. "I just wanted you back in my arms," he finishes on a whisper.

Lance doesn't move or speak for a long time. Then, slowly, he reaches out, his fingers threading through Keith's. "I did too. The whole time they had me, the only thing that kept me even partially sane was knowing that you were coming for me. Knowing that one day I'd be able to be with you like this again. I knew things would never be the way they were, but I just… I hoped we might be able to find our way back together again. And I'm glad we have. Found our way together again, that is. Whatever… whatever together has to look like."

Keith's head snaps up at that, fear a noose around his neck. "What…." He blinks rapidly a few times, trying to get his bearings from the strange turn the conversation has taken. "Whatever together has to look like?" he repeats dully.

Lance nods, his face shifting into a weak imitation of his bravest face. "I know I hurt you. I know there's no making up for that. And I am willing to live with that if I have to. But…." He swallows, meeting Keith's eyes head-on, something like defeat in them. Keith's heart aches at the expression, but he's still so stunned he can't find it in himself to force a single word past his lips. "But whatever you want, I will gladly give, and whatever you're willing to give, I will gladly accept."

"Lance. What are you saying?"

Keith watches Lance's throat work as he swallows and, with an increasingly leaden feeling in his stomach, stares in disbelief as Lance releases Keith's hand and goes for the ring on his left hand. Lance slips it off, offering it to Keith with resignation and regret in his eyes.

Keith looks from the ring to Lance's face and back again. He opens his mouth twice, unable to find the words he needs, before finally settling on asking the same question again. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying I won't hold you back any longer. I know I can never undo the damage I did, but--"

"What the _fuck_?" Keith barely registers the surprised, almost frightened look on Lance's face, flinging himself out of bed, the need to move taking over. "What the fuck does that even _mean_ , Lance? You won't hold me back? Hold me back from what? What the fuck does that even--" Keith shakes his head, fingers grabbing at his hair, tugging at it in an attempt to ground himself while his world spirals out of control. He's shaking, and seconds away from either tears or full-blown violence, and he knows the one he'd prefer is definitely not the right one in this situation. "You're my whole world, Lance, and you think… what, that I don't want that anymore? That something's changed somehow? That I don't still _love you_?"

Lance is staring up at him, wide-eyed and frightened, ring still held between now-slack fingers while he gapes up at Keith. Keith is distantly aware that he's shouting, and that he's liable to wake the whole castle if he keeps this up, but he can't find it in himself to care, needing to do whatever it takes to get Lance to understand.

"Lance, I went through hell for _two years_ while you were gone, not knowing if you were safe or sane or even still alive! And you think I would let you go because the Galra fucked with your head so much that it took you a while to be able to recognize me again? To be able to speak to me again? To _love_ me again? Fuck, Lance, if that's the man you think I am--" Keith chokes on a sob, all the strength going out of him. "If that's the man you think I am, the man that I've shown myself to be to you for the whole time we've known each other… fuck, Lance, if that's who you think I am, then I'm not the one who should be asking for this to be over."

For a long time, Lance doesn't move or speak or do anything at all. Eventually though, Keith hears him moving, but Keith can't make himself look up for fear that he's going to see Lance leaving.

Which is why it takes him by surprise when Lance's hand comes to rest on his cheek, the cool metal of his ring warming rapidly against Keith's skin. "Lance…?"

"I think we've both been going about this all wrong," Lance says, the look on his face warmer than anything Keith's seen in ages. "Hi," he says, "I'm Lance. I was tortured by the Galra for two years until the most incredible man in the universe came and saved me. He's been patient and honest and so much more than I ever could have hoped for, and if he is willing-- if he'll have me… if _you'll_ have me, Keith, it would be my honor to be bound to you for the rest of my days."

Keith's throat is tight as he stares into Lance's warm eyes, his heart filled to bursting with love. It takes a moment before Keith realizes that he's supposed to respond, but even as he wobbles and wavers, Lance stays strong, his eyes certain where they meet Keith's. "Hi," Keith finds himself saying, "I'm Keith. I spent two years scouring the universe for the most incredible man alive only to find that he'd survived the worst that his enemies could throw at him. He spent weeks fighting through the pain and memories until he could stand at my side again, and he did so with a smile on his face and a strength that I've never seen in anyone else. If he is willing, and if he'll have me, it would be my honor to be bound to him for the rest of my days. To you, Lance. You're all I've ever wanted and more. You're the only person I want to spend the rest of my life with. Will you have me?"

"Gladly," Lance says, his fingers sliding down to cup the back of Keith's head. "Will you have me?"

"For as long as I breathe," Keith says, relief rushing through him.

Lance smiles, tugging Keith into a bruising kiss that Keith can't help but melt into.

"That was real cute and all," a voice says from the doorway, and Keith and Lance don't quite spring apart, but their teeth do knock together as they turn to the door to find Pidge standing there with their hands on their hips, Hunk and Shiro standing behind them, "but do you think you could keep the shouting during your sappy proposals to a minimum next time? Some people were trying to sleep."

Keith feels himself go bright red while Lance lets loose a vibrant laugh. Everyone relaxes a little at the sound, and something in Keith's chest go positively liquid. "You got it, Pidge," he says, and Keith turns back to his lover--his, fuck, his _fiancé_ (because Pidge is right, that was a proposal if Keith has ever heard one, and the rings around their fingers and the bond between their souls makes it an even surer thing)--and feels that same certainty wash over him.

"Yeah," Keith adds, "we'll try to keep it down."

"Good," Pidge says with a nod. “Now if you'll excuse me," they say, turning on their heel, "I'm going to go back to sleep."

Keith turns back to Lance as he laughs again, waving at the rest of the team as they each head back to bed in turn. Lance slips his arm off Keith's shoulder and goes to close the door that Pidge had clearly hacked in their haste to get inside. When he turns back to Keith, he stops short, his eyes going wide at whatever he sees on Keith's face. "You okay?" Lance asks.

Keith nods, a smile that feels foreign sliding onto his features. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm good." He reaches out, and Lance takes his hand, letting Keith reel him in. Keith cups a hand over Lance's cheek and searches his features. "Just thinking that I'm the luckiest man alive to be engaged to you."

Lance blinks a few times, his mind clearly going a mile a minute to catch up with Keith's logic. When he does, his eyes go wide for an instant before his whole face softens. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," Keith says, leaning in to press a kiss to the corner of Lance's mouth.

"Hmm. You know Mamá's gonna want a full-fledged ceremony when we get back to Earth, right?"

Keith laughs. "I'm looking forward to it."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

Lance laughs as he leans in, kissing Keith fully on the mouth. Keith knows this isn't the last time they're going to fight, or the last time that Lance's PTSD is going to rear its ugly head, but he does know that, from now on, they're going to be able to weather whatever the universe throws at them. They're paladins, fighters to the end, but, more importantly, they're _together_ again, and that's the strongest safety net of all.

**Author's Note:**

> I'M BACK! Well, for a little bit, at least. Two quick updates, and then I'll probably go back into hiding for a while. Thank you all SO MUCH for your patience with me as I grappled with the struggles of getting back to work and back into the classroom. It means so much that people enjoy my work and are willing to wait while real life takes it's toll. I hope these updates are worth it!!
> 
> [Come hang with me on tumblr!!](http://hollyandvice.tumblr.com/)


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